Washing-machine



UNITED STATES`v PATENT OFFICE.

CLARENCE DOWN ING, OF Cl-IICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MARY DOYVN ING, OF SUNFIELD, MICHIGAN.

WASHING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 551,813, dated December 24, 1895. Application filed May 13, 1293. Renewed August 28,1895. Serial No. 560,822. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CLARENCE DOWNING, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Washing-Machine, of which the following is a speci-- fication.

The invention relates to improvements in washing-machines.

The object of the present invention is to simplify and improve the construction of washing-machines, and to provide one which will readily adjust itself to the quantity of clothes being washed, and which will enable clothes to be rapidly and thoroughly washed in a manner similar to the ordinary handwashing without injury to the clothes or inconvenience to the operator.

The invention consists in the construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims hereto appended.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a Washing-machine constructed in accordance with this invention, the oscillating rubber being raised. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same, showing the parts in operative position. Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view.

Like numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

1 designates a semicylindrical washingmachine body having a sheet-metal bottom 2 and mounted upon legs 3, and having arranged within it on its curved bottom a stationary washboard or rubber 4, which cooperates with an oscillating rubber 5.

The stationary washboard or rubber 3 is composed of a series of transversely-disposed V-'shaped slats 6, which are connected by or strung on wires 7, and the said stationary washboard or rubber is arranged slightly above the bottom of the washingmachine body to form a yielding support for the clothes. At the ends of the stationarywashboard or rubber are arranged bars S, which are provided with perforations 9 to receive 5o pins 9 of the body 1, and which are secured ends of the pins when in operative position and adapted to be swung aside to permit the stationary washboard or rubber to be removed.

The oscillating rubber 5 has segmental side pieces and is provided with a rubbing-surface composed of transverse slats secured to the lower curved edges of its sides, and it is provided With upwardly-extending bars 1l,which have their upper ends pivoted to side bars 12 of an operating-lever frame 13. The operating-lever frame is provided at its front end with a handle-bar 14, which connects the side bars at that end of the lever-frame, and the other ends of the side bars 12 are connected by a cross-bar 15 and are pivoted to the upper ends of link-bars 16, which have their lower ends similarly secured to extensions of the sides of the washing-machine body. The bars 1l of the oscillating rubber have attached to them removable rods 17 which are offset from the oscillating rubber and are arranged in openings or eyes 18 of journals 19. The journals 19 extend outward from and are arranged in bearing-openings of plates 20, which are secured to the outer faces of the sides of the washing-machine body at the upper edges thereof. The removable rods 17 have angularly-bent and inwardly-extending portions 21 at their tops, and are provided at the inner ends of the same with securing-plates 22, which with the inwardly-extending portions 21 are formed integral with the rods. The rods fulcrum the oscillating rubber on the washing-machine body, and at the same time permit the oscillating rubber to have a vertical movement to adapt itself to the quantity of clothes being washed, and to enable the operator to exert the desired and necessary pressure upon the clothes, and to have the same control of the rubbing` as would be the case were the clothes washed by hand.

It will be seen that the washing-machine is simple and inexpensive in construction, that it is capable of enabling clothes to be rapidly and thoroughly washed, and that it will readily accommodate itself to the quantity of clothes being washed and will permit the necessary pressure to be exerted on the clothes without inconvenience to the operator.

Changes in the form, proportion and the IDO minor details of construction may be resorted to Without departing from the principle or sacrifieing any of the advantages of this invention.

That I claim isl. In a washing machine, the combination of a body, a stationary rubber j ournaled therein, horizontally disposed journals swiveled to the body and arranged on the outer sides thereof and extending laterally therefronl and provided with openings, an oseillat ing rubber provided with depending rods having free lower ends and detaehably and ad,- j ustably arranged in the openings of said swiveled j ournals, substantially as described.

2. In a washing machine, the combination of a bodyhavin g a stationary rubbing surface, journals arranged on the outer faces of the sides of the body and swiveled thereto and provided with openings, an oscillating rubber having upwardly extendingbars,rods secured to and oil-set from the upwardly extending bars and having their lower ends free and arranged removably in the openings of the journals, links pivoted at their lower ends to the body, and the lever-frame pivoted at its rear end to the upper ends of the links and having the upper ends of the bars of the oscillating rubber pivoted to it intermediate of its ends, substantially as described.

In testilnclny that I claim the foregoing as iny own I have hereto aiiixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

CLARENCE DO'WNING.

lVitnesses:

E. W. STEVENs, I). J. LooMIs. 

